>>5830681>>5830681You were torn on what to do with this new, transformative magic—to share it with anyone else, or not. It wasn’t that you were jealous of your secret, exactly. Rather, you were uncertain to what degree you COULD share it… And to what lengths Izitina Henzler would go to achieve the same state. Perhaps that was why you didn’t tell her right away.
“Hey Izzy,” you asked her one day, a few weeks after you first attained <Free Movement>, “when’s your birthday, anyway?”
“Huh?” she asked, clearly startled. “a-ah, no, no thanks.”
“What?” you asked, confused.
“You don’t need to get me anything,” she said quietly.
“Well, okay,” you allowed, “but what if I WANTED to?”
“Then I’d rather you didn’t,” she said, surprisingly firm on this matter.
“Why not?” was the obvious question, but one she refused to answer, instead changing subjects… And naturally, that subject changed to the alchemical arts and supernatural sciences which were the core of your relationship with her. How awkward, then, to hide this great (terrible?) secret…. But maybe you WERE a little jealous. Not of your secret, but of this bond, of your friend.
Maybe you were afraid that to tell Izzy would be to lose her, possibly forever.
Still, you couldn’t keep it a secret forever, and the bargain you had made with yourself—the arbitrary deadline you had set—was to tell her by her birthday. So it was that you hatched a plan with Testa, who had taken an interest in the astrological arts of divination. You told a little white lie to make your plan a reality—that you were seeking the learn Izirina Henzler’s birthdate as a matter of comparing star-chart compatibility. Testa’s eyes, of course, sparkled like the night sky at that.
“I knew it!” she exclaimed. “I KNEW you two were an item! You’re just too shy to admit it, isn’t that it?”
“Uhh,” you said.
“Like dear Logan,” Testa sighed dreamily, turning her gaze away to stare at some imagined future in the middle distance. “He just doesn’t know how to express his passions. You men never do!”
“Well, that’s not…” you began.
“Never fear, Tips!” Testa interrupted you with a saucy wink and a protruding tip of her tongue. “Your best gal-pal is on it!”
“There IS Zith-Zi,” you noted ruefully.
Testa pouted, crossing her arms.
“Goblins don’t count,” she said, “or at least not THAT one.”
“Still sour about the newt she slipped down the back of your—”
“Do you WANT me to help you, or not?” Testa snarled.
You backed off, and let her do her thing.